chapter 15 conflict and negotiation “yes” helps open doors

Chapter 15

Conflict and Negotiation

“Yes” helps open doors

Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 15-2

Chapter 15 Study Questions

• What is conflict?

• How can conflict be managed successfully?

• What is negotiation?

• What are the different strategies involved in negotiation?


What is conflict?

• Conflict occurs whenever:– disagreements exist in a social situation over

issues of substance– emotional antagonisms cause frictions between

individuals or groups


What is conflict?

Types of conflict• Substantive conflict

– A fundamental disagreement over ends or goals to be pursued and the means for their accomplishment

• Emotional conflict– Interpersonal difficulties that arise over feelings

of anger, mistrust, dislike, fear, resentment, and the like


What is conflict?

Levels of conflict• Intrapersonal conflicts

– Actual or perceived pressures from incompatible goals or expectations

– Approach-approach conflict– Avoidance-avoidance conflict– Approach-avoidance conflict


What is conflict?

• Interpersonal conflict– Occurs between two or more individuals who

are in opposition to one another

• Intergroup conflict– Occurs among members of different teams or

groups


What is conflict?

• Interorganizational conflict– Commonly refers to the competition and rivalry

that characterize firms operating in the same markets


Figure 15.1


What is conflict?

• Functional (or constructive) conflict – results in positive benefits to individuals, the

group, or the organization


What is conflict?

• Potential benefits of functional conflict– Surfaces important problems so they can be

addressed– Causes careful consideration of decisions– Causes reconsideration of decisions– Increases information available for decision

making– Provides opportunities for creativity


What is conflict?

• Potential disadvantages of dysfunctional conflict– Diverts energies– Hurts group cohesion– Promotes interpersonal hostilities– Creates overall negative environment– Can decrease work productivity and job

satisfaction– Can contribute to absenteeism and job turnover


What is conflict?

• Culture and conflict– Culture and cultural differences must be

considered for their conflict potential– Cross-cultural sensitivity helps defuse

dysfunctional conflict and capture advantages that constructive conflict may offer


How can conflict bemanaged successfully?

• Conflict resolution – situation in which the underlying reasons for a

given destructive conflict are eliminated


Figure 15.2



• Conflict antecedents – establish the conditions from which conflicts are

likely to develop

• Manifest conflict – removing or correcting conflict antecedents



• Perceived conflict – when the antecedents become the basis for

substantive or emotional differences between people or groups

• Felt conflict – conflict experienced as tension that motivates

the person to take action to reduce feelings of discomfort



Causes of conflict• Vertical conflict

– Occurs between hierarchical levels

• Horizontal conflict– Occurs between persons or groups at the same

hierarchical level

• Line-staff conflict– Involves disagreements over who has authority

and control over specific matters



• Role conflicts– Occur when the communication of task

expectations proves inadequate or upsetting

• Workflow interdependencies– Occur when people or units are required to

cooperate to meet challenging goals

• Domain ambiguities– Occur as misunderstandings over such things

as customer jurisdiction or scope of authority



• Resource scarcity– When resources are scarce, working

relationships are likely to suffer

• Power or value asymmetries– Occur when interdependent people or groups

differ substantially from one another in status and influence or in values



Indirect conflict management approaches

• Reduced interdependence– Adjusting the level of interdependency among

units or individuals when workflow conflicts exist– Decoupling, buffering, and linking pin roles


How can conflict bemanaged successfully?• Decoupling

– taking action to eliminate or reduce the required contact between conflicting parties

• Buffering – used when the inputs of one group are the

outputs of another group

• Linking pin roles – persons expected to use knowledge of host

group to help work better with other groups in order to accomplish mutual tasks



• Appeal to common goals– Focusing the attention of potentially conflicting

parties on one mutually desirable conclusion



• Hierarchical referral– Problems are referred up the hierarchy for

more senior managers to reconcile

• Altering scripts and myths– Superficial management of conflict by using

behavioral routines that become part of the organization’s culture


Figure 15.3



• Lose-lose conflict – nobody gets what he or she wants

• Avoidance

• Accommodation

• Compromise


How can conflict bemanaged successfully?• Avoidance

– Everyone simply pretends that the conflict does not really exist and hopes that it will go away

• Accommodation or smoothing– Involves playing down differences among the

conflicting parties and highlighting similarities and areas of agreement

• Compromise– Each party gives up something of value, but

neither party’s desires are fully satisfied



• Win-Lose conflict – one party achieves its desires at the expense

and to the exclusion of the other party’s desires

• Competition

• Authoritative command



• Competition– One party achieves a victory through the use of

force, superior skills, or domination

• Authoritative command– Use of formal authority to dictate a solution and

specify who gains what and who loses what



• Win-Win conflict – achieved by a blend of both high

cooperativeness and high assertiveness

• Collaboration or problem solving



• Collaboration or problem solving– recognition by all conflicting parties that

something is wrong and needs attention – stresses gathering and evaluating information

in solving disputes and making choices



• Win-win solutions should:– Achieve each other’s goals– Be acceptable to both parties– Establish a process whereby both parties see a

responsibility to be open and honest about facts and feelings



• Potential disadvantages of collaboration– Collaboration requires time and energy– Both parties to the conflict need to be assertive

and cooperative


What is negotiation?

• Negotiation – the process of making joint decisions when the

parties involved have different preferences



• Substance goals– Outcomes that relate to content issues

• Relationship goals– Outcomes that relate to how well people

involved in the negotiations and any constituencies they represent are able to work with one another once the process is concluded



Criteria of an effective negotiation• Quality

• Harmony

• Efficiency



• Ethical aspects of negotiation– To maintain good working relationships,

negotiators should strive for high ethical standards

– Negotiators’ rationalizations for questionable ethical behavior are offset by long-run negative consequences



• Two-party negotiation– Manager negotiates directly with one other

person

• Group negotiation– Manager is part of a group whose members are

negotiating



• Intergroup negotiation– Manager is part of a group that is negotiating

with another group

• Constituency negotiation– Manager is involved in negotiation with other

persons, with each party representing a broader constituency


What are the different strategies involved in negotiation?

• Distributive negotiation– Focuses on positions staked out or declared by

the conflicting parties

• Integrative negotiation– Sometimes called principled negotiation– Focuses on the merits of the issues



• Distributive negotiation– Participants ask: “Who is going to get this

resource?”– “Hard” distributive negotiation

• Each party holds out to get its own way

– “Soft” distributive negotiation• One party is willing to make concessions to the other

party to get things over



• Bargaining zone – range between one party’s minimum

reservation point and the other party’s maximum reservation point


Figure 15.4



• Integrative negotiation– The key question is: “How can the resource

best be utilized?”– Is less confrontational than distributive

negotiation, and permits a broader range of alternative solutions to be considered

– Opportunity for a true win-win solution



Attitudinal foundations of integrative agreements

• Willingness to trust the other party

• Willingness to share information with the other party

• Willingness to ask concrete questions of the other party



Behavioral foundations of integrative agreements– Ability to separate the people from the problem– Ability to focus on interests rather than

positions– Ability to avoid making premature judgments– Ability to keep alternative creation separate

from evaluation– Ability to judge possible agreements on an

objective set of criteria or standards



• Information foundations of integrative agreements– Each party must know what he or she will do if

an agreement can’t be reached– Each party must determine what is personally

important in the situation



• Common negotiation pitfalls– Myth of the fixed pie– Possibility of escalating commitment– Negotiators often develop overconfidence in

their positions– Communication problems can cause difficulties

during a negotiation



• Alternative dispute resolution– A neutral third party works with persons

involved in a negotiation to help them resolve impasses and settle disputes

• Arbitration – A third party acts as a “judge” and has the

power to issue a decision that is binding on all disputing parties



• Mediation– A neutral third party tries to engage disputing

parties in a negotiated solution through persuasion and rational argument

chapter 15 conflict and negotiation “yes” helps open doors

Documents

groupsfelt conflict

perceived conflict

developmanifest conflict

constructive conflict

conflict resolution

given destructive conflict

interpersonal conflictoccurs

cultural differences